Certain lung diseases, such as emphysema, reduce the ability of a person's lungs to sufficiently oxygenate blood. If parts of a patient's lungs are removed due to conditions such as lung cancer, the ability to oxygenate blood is impaired. Persons having such conditions require assistance in providing oxygenated blood to their bodies. Some patients with such conditions can survive if oxygen-enriched air is supplied to their lungs, as by use of an oxygen mask. However, other patients do not have sufficient lung capacity for survival with these measures.
It has been proposed to provide blood oxygenators to such patients. A blood oxygenator is a device which exposes the patient's blood to air or oxygen as the blood flows through the device. Blood oxygenators have long been used as a component of the so-called “heart-lung machine” to provide short-term support to a patient during surgical procedures such as heart surgery or transplantation. However, the systems incorporating such oxygenators require frequent and professional maintenance, and are suitable for use only in a hospital setting. These systems typically require that the patient be confined to a bed, which drastically impairs the patient's quality of life. Thus, there has been a significant need in the art for a patient support system using an oxygenator which can be used for long-term treatment, desirably outside of a hospital environment.